Friday, October 14, 2011

They empty their Recycle Bin every time they delete something. My question is this...

Why?

Are they low on disk space? Are their deleted files private? Does it make their computer go faster?

I think the reason why most people do it is because it just makes their computer "feel" cleaner. They do it purely for psychological reasons.

For the 15+ years I've had Windows, I've emptied my recycle bin this many times...

Zero.

It's great. I don't have to take that extra step every time after deleting files. I am able to undelete files when the occasion arises. It doesn't make me run out of disk space (the Recycle Bin's size is capped by default). And my computer runs the same, filled Recycle Bin or not.

Ultimately, it's your computer and your time, and you can do whatever you want with both. But if you're a constant Recycle Bin emptier, try leaving it filled for a week and see if it makes a difference.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

This is my first "5-Star" post. In these segments, I will pick an artist\group and five songs I like from them. The songs will be ordered by release date and track number.

This being my first K-Pop post, who better to choose than... 2NE1!

Someone commented on a forum that they looked like they dress themselves in the dark.

If SNSD represents one end of the K-Pop spectrum (cutesy, bubblegum pop), then 2NE1 certainly represents the opposite end (electronic, hip pop).

The group is very big right now in Korea and throughout Asia. Their style is very edgy and represents one side of K-Pop which includes hip-pop beats, auto-tune, and rapping pop singers!

How I Discovered Their Music: I didn't know much about K-Pop back in 2010 (except for BoA and Ivy). On last.fm, I was listening to the J-Pop station which sometimes mixes in K-Pop tunes. When I heard 2NE1's music, I was thinking wow, what is this non-Japanese language? lol. But I was also thinking, wow, this music is really different & cool sounding.

Members

Minzy, Bom, Dara, CL

- CL is the leader and mostly raps but does some singing as well.

- Minzy also often raps and does a bit more singing than CL.

- Dara often sings but does some auto-tuned spoken parts.

- Bom frequently sings the chorus and major vocal sections but occasionally does spoken parts.

- In my head, I group Minzy\CL together because they often rap and are quite young (17 and 20). And I group Bom\Dara because they often sing and are older (27 and 26).

- Languages some of the members can speak are Korean (obviously), English, Japanese, Chinese, Tagalog, and French.

A song layout I've seen them use more than once is:

Verse 1st half = CL

Verse 2nd half = Minzy

Pre-chorus = Dara

Chorus = Bom

But they usually mix it up. CL rapping a verse and Bom singing the chorus is very common though.

Favorite Member

In this pic, her eyes remind me of my ex-gf's. =/

Sandara "Dara" Park is my favorite because of her career background, personality, and sound of her voice. Unfortunately many people, including her fans, say she is the weakest member of the group in terms of singing and dancing. And she isn't many people's favorite member either. Despite that, I still like her singing (but I do feel Bom is the best vocalist of the group).

In regards to her career background, before 2NE1 she was a singer, actress, and spokesperson in the Philippines. And she speaks Tagalog...

OMG, she sounds like a freaking Pinay.

And the last reason she's my favorite member is because... I kinda' like her smile. (^_^)

Anyways, on to the music...

DJ PJ's 2NE1 5-Star Songs (2009-2011)

★Pretty Boy ★

The edgy beats go hand in hand with auto-tuned verses. But I LOVE when the contrasting, melodic vocals come in.

★ Can't Nobody ★Some songs, you don't like at first but end up liking the more you hear it. For me, this song had the opposite effect. lol. However, I still list this song here because I think it's a good representation of 2NE1's style.

★ Love is Ayaya ★
I like how this song showcases each member's singing. In most of their songs, 2-4 of the members are auto-tuned and have only rapping\speaking parts.

Although I like this song, I wouldn't say it was one of my top 5 fave's. However, like "Can't Nobody", this song was one of their hits and is a good representation of their style so I list it here.

But I do really like the layout of the song. In the first verse, each member singers four distinct melodies. In the second verse, the four melodies are repeated but by a different member.

Overall, this was a hard list to make as I had to leave out songs I loved. If you don't listen to K-Pop already, hopefully this post got you interested in the genre! However, I feel 2NE1's music only represents one style (out of three) of "K-Pop" music. I will cover more styles\artists in the future.

Monday, October 3, 2011

First off, I'm not one of those people whom regularly complain about YouTube or it's advertisements. Some level of advertising is good; it encourages companies and individuals to post more content.

BUT... the other day I was listening\watching a music video and simultaneously, a freaking Air Wick commercial was playing at the side!

Video commercials WHILE watching? How am I supposed to listen to two videos simultaneously?

This type of advertising is pointless. Everyone is going to find a way to mute the ad that's interrupting their video. Additionally, it makes everyone hate YouTube and advertisers that do this.

I've also seen this type of advertising on website articles. How am I supposed to read your article when a video is playing on the side? The first thing I'm going to do is mute it! It's completely pointless and detrimental.

Overall, this is a very surprising move by Google. If you use any of their services (search, Chrome, Gmail), Google's 100% about user experience. I predict over time, they will come to their senses and get rid of these type of ads.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Maya users are always telling me about their 3D files becoming corrupted. I've never had that problem with LightWave except for today. My program crashed while I was working on a model. However, the program was still open and half-functional so I made the foolish decision to save the model and then close the crashed program.

Big mistake.

I re-opened the program & model, and long & behold, it was corrupted!

(What the heck is this? This is supposed to be a full character!)

Hours of work gone, I thought! However, even though most of the model was missing when I opened it, the file was 470kb large meaning that the data was still there! It just needed to be repaired someway, somehow.

So here's what I did to try to repair it:

Checked the LightWave temp folder for a backup copy (there was none).

Opened the file in other 3D programs like Modo and Cinema 4D (open failed).

Use un-delete software (didn't work for overwritten files).

I was about ready to give up and just make the whole model again. However, I read on a forum that someone was able to repair a LightWave file using Deep Exploration. So I downloaded the demo, installed it, crossed my fingers and opened my corrupted model...

My eyes popped out of my head; the file opened FLAWLESSLY! The entire mesh was there w\ all the material assignments. I then saved it as a new lwo file and got my girl back into LightWave.

Chizu-chan says「ありがとう」！

So if your 3D files ever get corrupted, fix it with Deep Exploration! The program supports tons of other 3D file formats and can do file conversions too.